Three dimensional (3D) printers are in rapidly increasing use. One class of 3D printers includes stereolithography printers having a general principle of operation including the selective curing and hardening of radiation curable (photocurable) liquid resins. A typical stereolithography system includes a resin vessel holding the photocurable resin, a movement mechanism coupled to a support surface, and a controllable light engine. The stereolithography system forms a three dimensional (3D) article of manufacture by selectively curing layers of the photocurable resin onto a “support fixture.” Each selectively cured layer is formed at a “build plane” within the resin.
One class of stereolithography systems utilizes light engines based on spatial light modulators such as arrays of micromirrors. Such systems are generally limited by the pixel count of the spatial light modulator. There is a desire to provide systems having larger numbers of pixels to form larger and higher resolution articles of manufacture.